Barbara suggested we move this thread to the French forum, so here I am. Here\'s a short list of some of the things I\'m interested in that make others\' eyes glaze over. - comparative advantages of different computer operating systems. - the social structure of Internet communities - etymology - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (obsessed, I tell you!) - 20 century western history How about everyone else?

I like messing with Windows 95,98,98SE,and ME. I now have a smiley face and my name on the start button, and I have one version of the start menu where I have completely eliminated the start menu except when I click the start button it says Stop!, nothing else shows. In another version it has Stop! and Programs. Jay

Orchid: I, too, LOVE Buffy! I am not happy about it ending in a few weeks. I've seen every epsiode and it is going to feel so odd to not have it be a part of my life. I am crossing my fingers and hoping Angel will be renewed for next year.

As odd as it sounds, I have an intense interest in hacking and phreaking. I don't have the patience to sit at my computer for hours on end learning and doing things that could get me arrested, but I am fascinated by those who do--the technology behind it and psychology of it. ------------------ Check out my Web site

Jay D - That's clever! Scorpio Moon - What are we, separated at birth? I love hacker culture too! I love reading slashdot and 2600 and Eric Raymond. I'm not a hacker (at least in the computer sense) at all myself, but love the way they think about things. Have you gotten the first three seasons on DVD? I've loved having them. As a matter of fact, I just watched almost the entirety of Season two over again in the past week or so. What's really strange about my Buffy obsession is that I don't really like to watch television very much. It's just a really smart, hip show. The way they use language is worth it alone. Buffy (on Faith): "The girl makes Godot look punctual."

Strange/"boring" Interest! I love reading this! Finally I can disgorge my pent up feelings which cause 'other people's eyes to glaze over' .... Imagine, if you will, that Time is a giant mural created like a jigsaw puzzle (is it round or linear or what?); displayed within this mural is the morphology of elements of Time and the human condition. Any tidbit of information therefore, becomes a small piece of this "big picture." For some unfathomable reason I hunger to view and understand the 'reality' or 'truth' of this "big picture." I have sought to reconcile 'anomalous' issues into the 'big picture' - I love reading about most '-ologies' out there! I love learning how things began, how those things are done today and the relevance to our lives today. But most of all - how does/can this information benefit all of our lives today? If great civilizations have come before, what can we learn from them to avoid a catastrophic demise today? Chasing these answers has created a great 'junk' mind here! Perhaps some day I will reconcile all I have gleaned into a great novel! Edited for brevity [This message has been edited by cl west (edited April 21, 2003).]

I like early TV - shows from the 40s, 50s, early 60s. Last year I bought episodes of Ben Casey and The Defenders on eBay, would buy more if I had the money! I'm nuts about Ernie Kovacs. I used to have a bunch of books on early TV but they disappeared over many moves, and I would love to get them back, but now they're very hard to find. Even the libraries around here don't have them anymore. And most new books on TV history are awful - you'd think TV history started with Seinfeld. I'm also something of an expert on the quiz show scandals of the 1950s -- long before Robert Redford got interested in the subject. When I was 16 I wrote to Charles Van Doren and he wrote back. Still have the letter... My other strange interest is solar eclipses. I've never seen a full total eclipse, but I would love to someday. I did see a full annualar, in Michigan, in 1994. In my dream life I'm an eclipse chaser, traveling the world to see total eclipses...

Also, travel and international cuisine, although I haven't had the funds to really indulge this interest. But last week I tried a Moroccan restaurant for the first time, and I loved it! Now I'm searching the internet for recipies to try at home...